With the advancement of the electronics industry, many medical devices that rely on some form of electric power may be adapted to contain most, if not all, of the required components within the medical device. More specifically, some medical devices may be adapted to use an internal or attachable power source instead of requiring the device to be plugged into an external power source by a cable. Merely exemplary devices that may be adapted to include a portable power source are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,500,176 entitled “Electrosurgical Systems and Techniques for Sealing Tissue,” issued Dec. 31, 2002, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein; U.S. Pat. No. 7,416,101 entitled “Motor-Driven Surgical Cutting and Fastening Instrument with Loading Force Feedback,” issued Aug. 26, 2008, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein; U.S. Pat. No. 7,738,971 entitled “Post-Sterilization Programming of Surgical Instruments,” issued Jun. 15, 2010, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein; U.S. Pub. No. 2006/0079874 entitled “Tissue Pad for Use with an Ultrasonic Surgical Instrument,” published Apr. 13, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein; U.S. Pub. No. 2007/0191713 entitled “Ultrasonic Device for Cutting and Coagulating,” published Aug. 16, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein; U.S. Pub. No. 2007/0282333 entitled “Ultrasonic Waveguide and Blade,” published Dec. 6, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein; U.S. Pub. No. 2008/0200940 entitled “Ultrasonic Device for Cutting and Coagulating,” published Aug. 21, 2008, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein; U.S. Pub. No. 2009/0209990 entitled “Motorized Surgical Cutting and Fastening Instrument Having Handle Based Power Source,” published Aug. 20, 2009 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,657,174, issued Feb. 25, 2014), the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein; and U.S. Pub. No. 2010/0069940 entitled “Ultrasonic Device for Fingertip Control,” published Mar. 18, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,023,071, issued May 5, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. Similarly, various ways in which medical devices may be adapted to include a portable power source are disclosed in U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/410,603, filed Nov. 5, 2010, entitled “Energy-Based Surgical Instruments,” the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
Electrically powered medical devices such as those referred to herein may require an internal or otherwise integral power source (e.g., a battery or battery pack, etc.) to be charged or recharged immediately before use, during use, or otherwise. In some settings (e.g., those where a charging device is re-used several times, etc.), it may be desirable to provide some degree of isolation between a charging device and the medical device to thereby reduce the likelihood that the charging device will contaminate the medical device and/or to reduce the likelihood that the medical device will contaminate the charging device. Similarly, it may be desirable to facilitate charging or recharging of the power source within relatively close proximity to the location at which the medical device will be used in a medical procedure (e.g., within an operating room, etc.). While several systems and methods have been made and used to charge or recharge power sources, it is believed that no one prior to the inventors has made or used the invention described in the appended claims.
The drawings are not intended to be limiting in any way, and it is contemplated that various embodiments of the technology may be carried out in a variety of other ways, including those not necessarily depicted in the drawings. The accompanying drawings incorporated in and forming a part of the specification illustrate several aspects of the present technology, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the technology; it being understood, however, that this technology is not limited to the precise arrangements shown.